Zeitgeist
There was an AmigaWorld column called Zeitgeist wasn't there?
Anyway Google's annual summary of the year's searches is always interesting.
Also interesting is that as of November 2003, only 42% of the web-surfing public was using Windows XP. I guess it's interesting that the number is so high since I don't think many users upgrade their existing OS, rather they get a new OS with their new computer. That means probably something like 30% - 40% of PC users are using computers they bought in the last 2 years.
XP is a pretty decent platform upon which to write software - the complete death of the Windows 9x OS line will mean developers can stop having to worry about it, which will be nice. It's not really the differences in the API between the 9x and NT series that are the problem, it's the different sets of stuff included.
XP comes with an XML parser for example, and comes with a media player and codecs. It comes with a database engine and a web browser (Windows 95 did not). It comes with the MSI installer engine already installed.
This is one of the things they've been sued for - but it also means that as a developer, if I want to write an app that uses all these things, they're available for me to use and I don't have to worry about how to get it installed or breaking the existing stuff as I install the stuff I need.
Now if only XP came with the .NET framework... (I wonder if it will be part of XP SP2). That's the real bummer about Longhorn being so far away - I won't be able to just assume the user already has the .NET framework for probably another 6 years (or whenever XP is end-of-life'd).